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Spotted Ties: Series Guide

Set Description:

Spotted Ties is a subseries of the Beginnings: 1880s: Base Set series of Ars Longa Art Cards

The Spotted Ties subseries was inspired by two unique and nested groupings of cards within the original Old Judge (N172) series: the Script Series and the Spotted Ties

Old Judge (N172)

All of the images used to make the Spotted Tie cards are original to the Old Judge (N172) series

Issued from 1886 to 1890 by Goodwin & Co. in packs of Old Judge and Gypsy Queen cigarettes, the Old Judge series depicts at least 520 different players, managers, owners and umpires from more than 40 major and minor league teams

More than 2,500 variations of these cards have been documented and previously unknown cards are discovered every year

Perhaps the greatest documentary of baseball in the 19th century and a permanent cornerstone of the baseball card hobby, the Old Judge series contains a trove of images that preserve and convey the unique character and characters of baseball during the sport’s pioneering heyday

The athletes’ names were written in script on the cards, hence the series is known today as the Script Series

The Script Series contains 35 known baseball poses and 17 known boxing poses

Little did anyone know in 1886 that these 35 baseball picture cards would be the foundation for a four year marketing campaign that would produce a huge and massively diverse collection of at least 2,500 baseball images we now call the Old Judges . . . .
. . . . Nevermind the bedrock for an entire industry and hobby that would flourish for the next 130 years

The Old Judge Spotted Ties

Of the 35 baseball cards in the Script Series, 16 feature players from the 1886 New York Metropolitans, all of whom don a polka-dotted handerkerchief-cum-necktie in formal portrait

Today, this fairly obscure subseries of the Script Series is known as the Spotted Ties

The 1886 New York Metropolitans were not . . . good. The team won 53 games, lost 82, finished 7th out of 8, and disbanded a year later

As one might expect for a team with such a devastating lack of talent, the roster was heavy with fringe major league players